Arts Council briefing events

Artists perform at Imagine Watford 2011Photo: Jeff Busby

Arts Council briefing event, York

Young people participating in a music workshop using Firestix.Photo: Jim Lockey

1:00 pm Welcome and introduction

1:10 pm The Arts Council’s organisation review

1:30 pm Q&A with Sarah Maxfield & Cluny Macpherson

2:00 pm The funding environment and making the case

2:30 pm Provocations from Kerry Harker, Project Space Leeds, Nima Poovaya-Smith, Alchemy and

Marcus Romer, Pilot Theatre.

2:55 pm Informal discussion and refreshments

3:25 pm Q&As and further discussion with panel

4:15 pm Close

 

Agenda and timings for today

Final operating model andorganisation structure

Organisation Review

• our vision is to enrich people’s lives through their artistic and cultural experiences

• our purpose is to lead growth and ambition in the arts and cultural sector across England: investing public money effectively to encourage and enable artistic excellence; championing the value of the sector; and collaborating with the sector to ensure its future resilience

• our success will be in delivering our strategy: Achieving great art for everyone and Culture, knowledge and understanding: great museums and libraries for everyone

Our vision and purpose

• a result of the Government’s requirement that the Arts Council cuts its administrative costs as applied to its grant in aid for the arts by 2014/15

• making savings on this scale has required a major restructure and substantial reduction in staff numbers, and will call for new ways of working

• we will remain an intelligent and collaborative investor, leading growth and ambition in the sector; and being accountable for public money

• we will have to do things differently, through more streamlined investment processes and a more focused set of priorities - we will do less and do it differently

Organisation review

Principal changes

• 21 per cent reduction in staff numbers across the organisation from 559.5 full time posts to 442 (117.5)

• four Executive Directors, reducing from eight, accountable for delivering our strategy with the Chief Executive

• five areas covering London, the South East, the South West, the Midlands and the North

• 50 per cent cut in property costs through reducing the size but not the number of offices

• leadership of art form and cultural policy expertise distributed geographically across the organisation

• our thinking has been guided by the principle of being an intelligent and collaborative investor - and by the need to protect our relationship management capability, which is highly valued by the arts and culture sector

• collaborative working, both internally and externally, will be at the heart of what we do

• art form and cultural policy expertise will be distributed amongst our staff working across the country – everyone will have a local and national focus

One national organisation with local presence

Locations

South West Bristol

North Newcastle DewsburyManchester MidlandsNottinghamBirmingham

South East Cambridge Brighton

London

• to ensure each area has an equally distributed workload, and that we can have effective relationships

• the South West boundary will move eastwards to incorporate Hampshire and the unitary authorities of Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

• our staff in the South West will build relationships with organisations over the coming months, supported by their colleagues in the South East

Boundary change

Leadership distributed across the organisation

National policy leads• Children, Young People and Learning • Creative Media• Engagement and Audiences

National discipline leads

• Touring• Philanthropy and fundraising • Organisational resilience and

environmental sustainability • International• Diversity

• Combined Arts• Dance• Libraries • Literature • Museums• Music• Theatre• Visual Arts

7

Executive Board

Executive Director

Executive Director

Chief Executive

Executive Director

Deputy Chief Executive

Chief Finance Officer(Director Finance & Corporate Services)

National Director Advocacy and

Communications

North

Area Director Personal Assistant

Assistant, Operations

Director x3

Assistant x5

Relationship Manager x41

Senior Relationship Manager x8

Senior Manager, Advocacy &

Communications

Senior Manager, Operations

Officer, Advocacy &

Communications

Administrator

Assistant x2

Final post numbers

Posts 2012/2013

2013/2014

Executive & Executive Support 22 13

Investment, Planning & Governance 39 21

Investment Centre 40 41

Corporate Services 74.5 56

Arts & Culture, including AELCU 55 44

Advocacy & Communications , including Customer Services

33 30

London 60 63

Midlands 58 42

South East 58 36

South West 29 30

North 91 66

Total 559.5 442

Over three phasesFrom now until December • as many appointments as possible to Director roles

From January to March • new Executive Board and wider leadership group making further

appointments to the new structure

From April • external and internal recruitment to vacant posts • The new organisation will be in place by 1 July 2013. There may be

changes to office arrangements and locations for some months after this

Transition timeline

Arts Council priorities and investment processes

• we will have to do things differently, through more streamlined investment, grant making and application processes and a more focused set of priorities

• we will meet our accountability requirements and fund applications that meet our goals and priorities

• over the next year we will work with the arts and cultural sector to develop the necessary changes to our priorities and investment processes

Working together

More collaborative working, both internally and externally, will be at the heart of what we do

•our priorities

•our investment processes

•new ways of working

Questions and discussionQuestions and discussion

Irresistible – Jez Colborne Photo: Tim Smith

• Chancellor’s Autumn statement 5 December

• the Arts Council is o preparing the case for investment in arts and cultureo refreshing the priorities that sit under the five goals of Achieving

great art for everyone o designing next investment strategyo determining the processes to underpin it

• an External reference group will work with us

The funding environment

The cultural sector is a credit to Britain

Through creating great art, building our communities and contributing to economic growth:

o Innovation and regeneration across the countryo Building a talent laddero Promoting the UK on a global stage

•We have created a powerful platform for cultural, social and economic growth•The Olympics exemplified the strength of this platform•We have a modest ask to government to allow growth to continue

Making the case for arts and culture

• The Arts Council will support your communications and engagement work

• use messages in our on-going advocacy work • use examples and stories of the work that you do

What you can do• write your own confident story about how you contribute• use this story with all your audiences• read Measuring the economic benefits of arts

and culture and add your economic impact study to the Arts Council blog http://blog.artscouncil.org.uk/

• share the messages with your staff and board• acknowledge your public funding and tell your story

 

Making the case for arts and culture

Kerry Harker

Director, Project Space Leeds

Provocation: Do you suit and boot?

Nima Poovaya-Smith, Alchemy

with Anne Cunningham, The Art House

Provocation: Food for thought?

Marcus Romer, Artistic Director

Pilot Theatre

Provocation: Where the Hell is team Arts?

Discussion and questions

Liz Aggiss in Survival Tactics, part of Juncture 2012 at Yorkshire Dance in collaboration with Charlotte Vincent. Credit: Matthew Andrews

What are the three greatest challenges currently facing you or your organisation?

What do you think the Arts Council can do to help?

Thank you